War of The Words

A publication documenting the first two weeks of the war in Ukraine.

On the 24th of February 2022, the troops of the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. War of the Words aimed to document the live media reporting in the first two weeks of the war. Using data from digital and printed media produced by both sides, including newspaper articles, speeches and social media posts, such as TikTok videos, we were able to plot the speed and frequency of reporting and reflect this in the typography we used.

Throughout the publication, we varied the type size of the media source according to how quickly and how often people received the information. Social media sources were larger due to their short-form videos and algorithmic setup. In comparison, newspaper sources were smaller due to people receiving the physical information more slowly and newspapers being harder to get access to.

The typefaces used were inspired by the media we were tracking. Sofia Pro is the ‘TikTok’ typeface, and Times New Roman is often used in printed newspapers. The two contrasting typefaces also represent the idea of conflict, reflecting the wider theme of the war.

The choice of pink as the accent colour represents peace, optimism and hope. It is also a central point between red and white and is politically neutral.